Risk Factors Related to Our Common Stock
Our ability to have our securities traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market is subject to us meeting applicable listing criteria.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with Nasdaq’s continued listing standards, a failure of which could result in a delisting of our common stock and warrants.
We recently sold a substantial number of shares of our common stock and warrants to purchase common stock in a public offering, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline
The market price of our common stock is highly volatile and could be subject to volatility related or unrelated to our operations.
Market and economic conditions may negatively impact our business, financial condition and share price.
Future sales and issuances of our securities could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our shareholders and could cause our share price to fall.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends on our shares of common stock so any returns will be limited to the value of our shares.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Overview
Netcapital Inc. is a fintech company with a scalable technology platform that allows private companies to raise capital online from accredited and non-accredited investors. We give virtually all investors the opportunity to access investments in private companies. Our model is disruptive to traditional private equity investing and is based on Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding (“Reg CF”) of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”). We generate fees from listing private companies on our funding portal located at www.netcapital.com. Our consulting group, Netcapital Advisors Inc. (“Netcapital Advisors”), which is a wholly owned subsidiary, provides marketing and strategic advice to companies in exchange for cash fees and previously also received equity positions in certain select portfolio companies. The Netcapital funding portal is registered with the SEC, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), a registered national securities association, and provides investors with opportunities to invest in private companies. In addition, we recently expanded our model to include Regulation A (“Reg A”) offerings, which are conducted by our wholly owned subsidiary Netcapital Securities Inc. “(“Netcapital Securities”), which is a licensed broker-dealer with FINRA. Both A and Reg CF offerings are made available to investors via the Company’s website, www.netcapital.com.
Our Business
We provide private company investment access to accredited and non-accredited investors through (i) our online portal (www.netcapital.com), which is operated by our wholly owned subsidiaries Netcapital Funding Portal, Inc and (ii) our broker-dealer subsidiary, Netcapital Securities. The Netcapital funding portal charges a $5,000 listing fee, a 4.9% portal fee for capital raised at closing, and beginning in fiscal year 2025, a 1% success fee paid for with equity of the funding portal customer. In addition, the portal generates fees for other ancillary services, such as rolling closes. Netcapital Advisors previously generated fees and equity stakes from consulting in select portfolio (“Portfolio Companies”) and non-portfolio clients. Given our limited staff, we did not seek consulting engagements in fiscal 2025 and we do not plan to seek them in fiscal 2026. With respect to services for Reg A offerings, Netcapital Securities charges a listing fee of $25,000 and a success fee of 4.9% of the capital raised by an issuer under Reg A.
We generated revenues of $869,460, with costs of service of $40,344, in the year ended April 30, 2025 for a gross profit of $829,116 as compared to revenues of $4,951,435, with costs of service of $108,060, in the year ended April 30, 2025 for a gross profit of $4,843,375 (consisting of $3,537,700 in equity securities for payment of services and $1,413,736 in cash-based revenues, offset by $108,060 for costs of services). In fiscal 2025, we did not provide consulting services to Portfolio Companies in exchange for equity, which accounts for the largest portion of our decline in revenues in fiscal 2025 as compared to fiscal 2024 as we received revenues of approximately $3.5 million fiscal 2024 and compared to $0 in fiscal 2025. However, our funding portal did charge a 1% fee, payable in securities, to every issuer that closed an offering. The dollar value of that fee amounted to $72,090 and $97,700 for the years ended April 30, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Revenue from portal fees decreased by $285,294, or 33%, in fiscal 2025 to $589,074 from $874,368 in fiscal 2024. Revenue from portal fees consists of a 4.9% fee of the total capital raised by an issuer plus fixed miscellaneous charges for administrative fees, such as a rolling close, or the filing of an amended offering statement. The decrease is attributable to a 29% decrease in the total dollars invested through the portal, from $14.8 million in fiscal 2024 to $10.6 million in fiscal 2025. The total number of issuers on the Netcapital funding portal in fiscal 2025 and 2024 that successfully closed an offering was 49 and 53, respectively.
Revenue from listing fees decreased by $234,540, or 53%, to $207,500 in fiscal 2025 as compared to $442,040 in fiscal 2024. The decrease in listing revenue is directly attributable to the 54% decrease in offerings launched in fiscal 2025, as compared to fiscal 2024. New listings dropped from 82 in Fiscal 2024 to 38 in fiscal 2025. Listing fees are typically $5,000 per issuer, and they are the first form of revenue earned by our Funding Portal when an issuer signs a contract with us to sell securities on the funding portal. After the listing contract is signed, an issuer typically takes two months before it is ready to launch an offering. Most issuers remain on the funding portal, marketing their offering, for a period of six to nine months.
In fiscal 2025 and 2024, the average amount raised in an offering on the Netcapital funding portal was $215,745 and $280,978, respectively. The total number of offerings on the Netcapital funding portal in fiscal 2025 and 2024 that closed was 70 in each fiscal year, of which 21 and 17 offerings hosted on the Netcapital funding platform in fiscal 2025 and 2024, respectively, terminated their listings without raising the required minimum dollar amount of capital.
Funding Portal
Netcapital.com is an SEC-registered funding portal that enables private companies to raise capital online, while investors are able to invest from almost anywhere in the world, at any time, with just a few clicks. Securities offerings on the portal are accessible through individual offering pages, where companies include product or service details, market size, competitive advantages, and financial documents. Companies can accept investments from virtually anyone, including friends, family, customers, employees, etc. Customer accounts on our platform are not permitted to hold digital securities.
In addition to access to the Funding Portal, the Funding Portal provides the following services:
a fully automated onboarding process;
automated filing of required regulatory documents;
compliance review;
custom-built offering page on our portal website;
third party transfer agent and custodial services;
email marketing to our proprietary list of investors;
rolling closes, which provide potential access to liquidity before final close date of offering;
assistance with annual filings; and
direct access to our team for ongoing support.
Consulting Business
Our consulting group, Netcapital Advisors helps companies at all stages to raise capital. Netcapital Advisors provides strategic advice, technology consulting and online marketing services to assist with fundraising campaigns on the Netcapital platform. In the past we also acted as an incubator and accelerator, taking equity stakes in select disruptive start-ups, and we own positions in ten of these Portfolio Companies that we value at approximately $6 million. We have written off our investment in twelve Portfolio Companies and recorded a non-cash loss of more than $19.9 million from our non-cash investment in failed entities.
Netcapital Advisors’ services include:
investor introductions;
online marketing;
website design, software and software development;
message crafting, including pitch decks, offering pages, and ad creation;
strategic advice; and
technology consulting.
Broker-Dealer Business
In November 2024, wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Securities Inc. received approval from FINRA to become a FINRA-member broker dealer. We believe that by having a registered broker-dealer, it may create opportunities to expand the Company’s revenue base by hosting and generating additional fees from Reg A and Reg D offerings on the Netcapital platform, earning additional fees in connection with offerings that may result from the introduction of clients to other FINRA broker-dealers and expanding our distribution capabilities by leveraging strategic partnerships with other broker-dealers to distribute offerings of issuers that utilize the Netcapital platform to a wider range of investors in order to maximize market penetration and optimize capital raising efforts. As of the date of this report, Netcapital Securities has been engaged by one issuer seeking to raise capital via a Regulation A offering.
Competition
We compete with a number of public and private companies that provide assistance with capital raising, strategy, technology consulting, and digital marketing. Most of our competitors have significant financial resources and occupy entrenched positions in the market with name-brand recognition. The majority of our capital raising and digital marketing business is on the Internet.
The barriers to entry into most Internet markets are relatively low, making them accessible to a large number of entities and individuals. We believe the principal competitive factors in our industry that create certain barriers to entry include but are not limited to reputation, technology, financial stability and resources, proven track record of successful operations, critical mass, and independent oversight and transparency of business practices. Obtaining approval from FINRA to operate as a funding portal is also a barrier to entry due to the significant internal control and capital requirements. While these barriers may limit those able to enter or compete effectively in the market, it is likely that new competitors as well as laws and regulations of governmental authority may be established in the future, in addition to our known current competitors.
We face significant competition in every aspect of our business, including from companies that facilitate online capital formation and the sharing of content and information, companies that enable marketers to display advertising, companies that distribute video and other forms of media content, and companies that provide development platforms for applications developers. We compete to attract, engage, and retain customers, to attract and retain marketers, and to attract and retain developers to build compelling applications that integrate with our products.
Increased competition from current and future competitors may in the future materially adversely affect our business, revenues, operating results and financial condition.
Industry Regulation
In an effort to enhance economic growth and to democratize access to private investment opportunities, Congress finalized the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) in 2016. Title III of the JOBS Act enabled early-stage companies to offer and sell securities to the general public for the first time. The SEC then adopted Regulation Crowdfunding, or Reg CF, in order to implement the JOBS Act’s crowdfunding provisions.
Reg CF has several important features that changed the landscape for private capital raising and investment. For the first time, this regulation:
Allowed the general public to invest in private companies, no longer limiting early-stage investment opportunities to less than 10% of the population;
Enabled private companies to advertise their securities offerings to the public (general solicitation); and
Conditionally exempted securities sold under Section 4(a)(6) from the registration requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934.
The SEC had also adopted rules to implement Section 401 of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act by expanding Reg A into two tiers
Tier 1, for securities offerings of up to $20 million in a 12-month period; and
Tier 2, for securities offerings of up to $75 million in a 12-month period.
We are subject, both directly and indirectly, to various laws and regulations relating to our business. If any of the laws are amended, compliance could become more expensive and directly affect our income. We intend to comply with such laws, but new restrictions may arise that could materially adversely affect our Company. Specifically, the SEC regulates our funding portal business, and our funding portal is also a member of FINRA and is regulated by FINRA. We are also subject to the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which contains anti-money laundering and financial transparency laws and mandates various regulations applicable to financial services companies, including standards for verifying client identification at account opening, and obligations to monitor client transactions and report suspicious activities. Anti-money laundering laws outside of the United States contain some similar provisions. We are also subject to additional regulation and supervision of the SEC and FINRA, including without limitation Rule 15c3-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Uniform Net Capital Rule). The Uniform Net Capital Rule specifies minimum capital requirements intended to ensure the general financial soundness and liquidity of broker-dealers. The Uniform Net Capital Rule prohibits broker-dealers from paying cash dividends, making unsecured advances or loans or repaying subordinated loans if such payment would result in a net capital amount of less than 5% of aggregate debit balances or less than 120% of its minimum dollar requirement. Our failure to comply with these requirements as applicable to us could have a material adverse effect on us.
Our Market
The traditional funding model restricts access to capital, investments and liquidity. According to Harvard Business Review, venture capital firms (“VCs”) invest in fewer than 1% of the companies they consider and only 10% of VC meetings are obtained through cold outreach. In addition, only 2% of VC funding went to women-owned firms in 2024, according to PitchBook, while Crunchbase revealed that only 0.4% of startup funding went to black-owned firms.
Furthermore, under the traditional model, the average investor lacked access to early-stage investments. Prior to the JOBS Act, almost 90% of U.S. households were precluded from investing in private deals, per dqydj.com. Liquidity has also been an issue, as private investments are generally locked up until IPO or takeout.
The JOBS Act helped provide a solution to these issues by establishing the funding portal industry, which is currently in its infancy. Title III of the JOBS Act outlines Reg CF, which traditionally allowed private companies to raise up to $1.07 million. In March 2021, regulatory enhancements by the SEC went into effect and increased the limit to $5 million. These amendments increased the offering limits for Reg CF, Reg A and Regulation D, Rule 504 offerings as follows: Reg CF increased to $5 million; Regulation D, Rule 504 increased to $10 million from $5 million; and Reg A Tier 2 increased to $75 million from $50 million.
According to KingsCrowd, the 2021 increase in offering limits has served to boost the attractiveness of Reg CF to later stage issuers. While the previous $1 million cap on annual funding was perceived as too restrictive for capital-intensive companies, $5 million every twelve months can be a viable alternative for companies post seed stage.
Reg CF funding grew from $74.8 million in 2018 to $343.6 million in 2024, an increase of 360%, according to KingsCrowd. Although funding was down from its 2021 peak of $496.1 million, the number of Reg CF raises reached a new high in the final month of 2024 to 569 offerings, above the previous high in March 2022 of 561. The average investment size also increased by 26% in 2024 to $1,500 from $1,190 in the previous year. We believe a significant opportunity exists to disrupt private capital markets via the Netcapital funding portal.
Reg A+ offerings raised $244 million in 2024, an increase of 7.5% from the previous year, according to KingsCrowd. While 61 offerings closed during the year, 34 new offerings were launched. $2 million was the 2024 median Reg A+ raise, while the average raise was $7.7 million. We plan to support Reg A+ raises through our broker-dealer subsidiary, Netcapital Securities.
Our Technology
The Netcapital platform is a scalable, real-time, transaction-processing engine that runs without human intervention, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For companies raising capital, the technology provides fully automated onboarding with integrated regulatory filings. Funds are collected from investors and held in escrow until the offering closes. For entrepreneurs, the technology facilitates access to capital at low cost. For investors, the platform provides access to investments in private, early-stage companies that were previously unavailable to the general public. Both entrepreneurs and investors can track and view their investments through their dashboard on netcapital.com. The platform currently has more than 100,000 users.
Scalability was demonstrated in November 2021, when the platform processed more than 2,000 investments in less than two hours, totaling more than $2 million.
Our infrastructure is designed in a way that can horizontally scale to meet our capacity needs. Using Docker containers and Amazon Elastic Container Service, or Amazon ECS, we are able to automate the creation and launch of our production web and application programming interface, or API, endpoints in order to replicate them as needed behind Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs).
Additionally, all of our public facing endpoints live behind CloudFlare to ensure protection from large scale traffic fluctuations (including DDoS attacks).
Our main database layer is built on Amazon RDS and features a Multi-AZ deployment that can also be easily scaled up or down as needed. General queries are cached in our API layer, and we monitor to optimize very complex database queries that are generated by the API. Additionally, we cache the most complex queries (such as analytics data) in our NoSQL (Mongo) data store for improved performance.
Most of our central processing unit, or CPU, intensive data processing happens asynchronously through a worker/jobs system managed by AWS ElastiCache’s Redis endpoint. This component can be easily fine-tuned for any scale necessary.
The technology necessary to operate our funding portal is licensed from Netcapital Systems LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, of which Jason Frishman, Netcapital Founder, owns a 29% interest, under a license agreement with the Funding Portal. Payments under the licensing agreement amounted to $95,000 and $195,000 in the years ended April 30, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
Proposed Alternative Trading (“ATS”) Relationship
We believe that lack of liquidity is a key issue for investors in private companies in our targeted market. We also recognize that secondary trading of securities in private companies is subject to extensive regulation and oversight. Such regulation and oversight includes, but is not limited to, the need to be a registered broker-dealer that is licensed to operate an ATS, or to partner with an entity that is licensed to do so. In order to try to address what we believe is a large, unmet need, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Netcapital Systems LLC, a Utah limited liability company (“Netcapital UT LLC”), entered into a software license and services agreement on January 2, 2023 (the “Templum License Agreement”) with Templum Markets LLC (“Templum”), to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform with the potential for greater distribution and liquidity. Templum is a company that provides capital markets infrastructure for trading private equity securities, and operates an ATS with approval in 53 U.S. states and territories for the trading of unregistered or private securities. As of the date of this report, we have paused further development and roll-out while we reevaluate evolving market conditions and customer expectations.
The operation of the Templum ATS is (or any similar ATS will be) subject to extensive regulation and oversight. Accordingly, any regulatory delays or objections will also result in delays in our ability to fully launch the proposed platform. In addition, because we cannot easily switch between operators of secondary trading platforms of this nature, any disruption of or interference, whether due to regulatory issues or natural disasters, cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures, or other similar events, would impact our operations and may adversely affect the ability of issuers and investors to utilize this platform. There is no obligation for Templum to renew its agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
Institutions and individual investors may face significant risk when buying securities on our proposed secondary trading platform. These risks include the following:
private companies are not required to make periodic public filings, and therefore certain capitalization, operational and financial information may not be available for evaluation;
an investment may only be appropriate for investors with a long-term investment horizon and a capacity to absorb a loss of some or all of their investment;
the securities, when purchased, are generally highly illiquid, are often subject to further transfer restrictions, and no public market exists for such securities; and
transactions may fail to settle, which could harm our reputation.
Further, we may become involved in disputes and litigation matters between customers with respect to transactions on our proposed secondary trading platform. There is a risk that clients may increasingly look to us to make them whole for delayed and/or broken trades. Customers may litigate over a failure of sellers to deliver securities or over the untimely deliveries of securities. Any litigation to which we are a party could be expensive and time consuming, regardless of the ultimate outcome, and the potential costs and risks of such litigation may incentivize us to settle, which could harm our reputation or have a material adverse effect on our business or results or operations.
We estimate that the cost for developing this platform will not exceed $1.0 million, most of which has already been incurred and consists of salaries or fees paid to engineers and consultants. We have and continue to pay these expenses from our working capital. We do not currently have a revenue model associated with the sales of securities on the proposed ATS. However, we may seek to incorporate this revenue model in the future, provided that we determine any such revenue model is in strict compliance with all regulatory guidelines.
We currently anticipate that we will also be able to sell our interests in any portfolio company using the Templum ATS (or any similar ATS) provided such sales are made in a regulatorily compliant matter. We expect to place a restriction on any sales during any period in which an issuer is offering its securities for sale on the Netcapital funding platform. In addition, securities issued in a Reg CF transaction generally cannot be resold for a period of one year, unless the securities are transferred: (1) to the issuer of the securities; (2) to an “accredited investor”; (3) as part of an offering registered with the SEC; or (4) to a member of the family of the purchaser or the equivalent, to a trust controlled by the purchaser, to a trust created for the benefit of a member of the family of the purchaser or the equivalent, or in connection with the death or divorce of the purchaser or other similar circumstance. Accordingly, any shares owned by us would also be subject to these restrictions. Additional restrictions may be implemented, and there can be no assurance that we will ever sell any of our interests in any portfolio company using the Templum ATS (or any other similar ATS). Further, our insider trading policy prohibits all of our employees, officers, consultants and directors from buying or selling securities while in possession of material non-public information and all such parties are also required to maintain strict confidentiality of all such information. In addition, in order to maintain compliance with our insider trading policies, any affiliate or employee seeking to trade securities in any issuer listed on the funding portal must receive prior approval and clearance from our Chief Financial Officer and all such requests for clearance will be documented and maintained with our compliance department.
Our Netcapital funding portal is currently registered with the SEC and is a member of FINRA. For so long as we continue to operate our Netcapital platform solely for primary offerings by issuers under Reg CF, we believe that we are not required to register under Regulation ATS.
Competitive Advantages
Based upon publicly available information either published on the websites of our peer group (StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc., Wefunder Inc. and Republic Core LLC) or included in offering statements of issuers hosted on such offering platforms, we believe that we provide the lowest cost solution for online capital raising. We also believe, based upon our facilitated technology platforms, our strong emphasis on customer support, and feedback received from clients that have onboarded to our platform, that our access and onboarding of new clients are superior due to our facilitated technology platforms. Our network continues to rapidly expand as a result of our enhanced marketing and broad distribution to reach new investors.
Our competitors include StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc., Wefunder Inc. and Republic Core LLC. Given the rapid growth in the industry and its potential to disrupt the multi-billion dollar private capital market, we believe there is sufficient room for multiple players.
Our Strategy
Our strategy is to:
Generate New Investor Accounts. Growing the number of investor accounts on our platform is a top priority. Investment dollars continuing to flow through our platform is a key revenue driver. When issuers advertise their offerings, they are generating new investor accounts for us at no cost to Netcapital. We plan to supplement our issuers’ spend on advertising by increasing our online marketing spend as well, which may include virtual conferences going forward.
Hire Additional Business Development Staff. We seek to hire additional business development staff to generate new crowdfunding clients.
Increase the Number of Companies on Our Platform via Marketing. When a new company lists on our platform, they bring their customers, supporters, and brand ambassadors as new investors to Netcapital. We plan to increase our marketing budget to help grow our portal clients.
Invest in Technology. Technology is critical to everything that we do. We plan to invest in developing innovative technologies that enhance our platform and allow us to pursue additional service offerings.
Accelerate Our Advisory Portfolio Clients. The advisory portfolio and our equity interests in select advisory clients represent potential upside for our shareholders. We seek to assist our advisory clients.
Expand Internationally. We believe there is a significant opportunity to expand into Europe and Asia as an appetite abroad grows for U.S. stocks.
Provide a secondary trading feature. We believe that lack of liquidity is a key issue for investors in private companies in our targeted market. Accordingly, we are exploring ways in which we can provide our clients with the ability to access a secondary trading feature. In January 2023, we entered into the Templum License Agreement to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform with the potential for greater distribution and liquidity. Templum is an operator of an ATS with approval in 53 U.S. states and territories for the trading of unregistered or private securities to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform with the potential for greater distribution and liquidity. We are currently working with Templum on the design of the required software to enable issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform the ability to access the Templum ATS in order to engage in secondary trading of securities. In July 2024, we announced the launch of our beta version for this secondary trading platform and our goal was to offer such secondary trading platform through the Templum ATS to all issuers and investors on the Netcapital funding portal before the end of 2025 subject to compliance with all regulatory requirements, As of the date of this report, we have paused further development and roll-out while we reevaluate evolving market conditions and customer expectations.
New Verticals Represent a Compelling Opportunity. We operate in a regulated market supported by the JOBS Act. We are working on expanding our model to include Regulation A and Regulation D offerings.
Broker-Dealer License. In November 2024, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Netcapital Securities Inc. received approval to become a FINRA-member broker dealer. We believe that by having a registered broker-dealer, it may create opportunities to expand the Company’s revenue base by hosting and generating additional fees from Reg A and Reg D offerings on the Netcapital platform, earning additional fees in connection with offerings that may result from the introduction of clients to other FINRA broker-dealers and expanding our distribution capabilities by leveraging strategic partnerships with other broker-dealers to distribute offerings of issuers that utilize the Netcapital platform to a wider range of investors in order to maximize market penetration and optimize capital raising efforts.
Investment Portfolio
An additional part of our story involves the potential value creation driven by our portfolio companies. In our portfolio, we focus on companies with emerging, disruptive technologies. A partial list of our investment portfolio is described below:
KingsCrowd
Industry: Fintech
Trusted by over 300,000 investors to vet startup investments, KingsCrowd, Inc. is a leader in ratings and analytics for online private markets. The company aggregates, analyzes, and rates companies raising on platforms like Netcapital to help investors make more informed decisions.
Risks related to an investment in KingsCrowd include, but are not limited to the following:
Many of the key responsibilities of KingsCrowd’s business have been assigned to one individual, and its ability to implement adequate internal controls depends, in part, on its ability to attract trained professional staff that allows it to segregate duties among several individuals.
KingsCrowd may become subject to any number of laws and regulations that may be adopted with respect to the Internet and electronic commerce; and
KingsCrowd’s success depends in part on its ability to grow and take advantage of efficiencies of scale;
Zelgor
Industry: Mobile Games
Backed by famous venture capitalist Tim Draper, napster founder, Shawn Fanning, and co-creator of Guitar Hero, Kai Huang, Zelgor Inc.(“Zelgor”) is an interactive entertainment company featuring a new species of rambunctious alien characters called The Noobs. The Noobs are a unique and original intellectual property introduced to the world through mobile games, multimedia content, and strategic partnerships.
Risks related to an investment in Zelgor include, but are not limited to the following:
Many of the key responsibilities of Zelgor’s business have been assigned to four individuals;
Zelgor may become subject to any number of laws and regulations that may be adopted with respect to the Internet and electronic commerce; and
The business of mobile applications is competitive and is expected to become increasingly competitive in the future.
Hiveskill LLC
Industry: AI
The product is an AI-powered database and CRM hybrid that uses data and emotionally intelligent AI to boost direct one-to-one marketing efforts. It also provides specialized experts who know how to leverage your company’s data.
Risks related to an investment in Hiveskill LLC (“Hiveskill”) include, but are not limited to the following:
Competition in the markets in which Hiveskill competes could prevent it from generating or sustaining revenue growth and generating or maintaining profitability;
Hiveskill operates in an emerging market that is characterized by rapid changes in customer requirements, frequent introductions of new and enhanced products, and continuing and rapid technological advancement; and
Maintaining its reputation is critical to Hiveskill’s ability to attract and retain clients, and any failure, or perceived failure, to appropriately operate its business or deal with matters that give rise to reputation risk may materially and adversely harm the business, prospects and results of operations
The following table summarizes the components of investments as of April 30, 2025 and 2024:
April 30, 2025
April 30, 2024
Netcapital DE LLC
MustWatch LLC
Zelgor Inc.
ChipBrain LLC
Vymedic Inc.
C-Reveal Therapeutics LLC
Deuce Drone LLC
Hiveskill LLC
ScanHash LLC
Caesar Media Group Inc.
Cust Corp.
Reper LLC
Dark LLC
Netwire LLC
CountSharp LLC
CupCrew LLC
HeadFarm LLC
AceHedge LLC
Fantize LLC
StockText LLC
RealWorld LLC
1% equity fee received - 61 issuers in 2025, 30 issuers in 2024
KingsCrowd Inc.
Total Investments at fair value
Major Customers
For the year ended April 30, 2025, the Company had one customer that constituted 20% of its revenues, and a second customer that accounted for 11% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2024, the Company had one customer that constituted 25% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, and a third customer that constituted 22% of its revenues.
Recent Developments
July 2025 Warrant Exercises
In July 2025, we issued an aggregate of 269,257 shares of our common stock to warrant holders that exercised warrants to purchase 418,510 shares of common stock on a net exercise basis.
July 2025 Registered Direct Offering and Concurrent Private Placement #2
On July 16, 2025, we entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2”) with certain institutional investors, pursuant to which we agreed to sell 641,712 shares (the “July 2025 Shares #2”) of our common stock, at a purchase price of $4.675 per share (the “July 2025 Offering #2”) for gross proceeds of approximately $3 million, prior to deducting placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses payable by us. We intend to use approximately $250,000 of the net proceeds from the July 2025 Offering #2 for the repayment of certain outstanding promissory notes and the remainder for working capital and other general corporate purposes. The July 2025 Shares #2 were offered pursuant to our shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-267921), which was declared effective by the Securities Exchange Commission on October 26, 2022.
Concurrently with the sale of July 2025 Shares #2 pursuant to the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2 in a private placement, for each July 2025 Share #2 purchased by the investors, such investors received an unregistered warrant (the “July 2025 Investor Warrants #2”) to purchase one share of our common stock, or 714,286 shares in the aggregate (the “July 2024 Investor Warrant Shares #2”). The July 2025 Investor Warrants #2 have an exercise price of $4.55 per share and are exercisable immediately upon issuance for a twenty-four month period following the date of effectiveness of resale registration statement providing for a resale of the shares underlying the July 2025 Investor Warrants #2, which resale registration statement is required to be filed within 30-days of the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2.
In connection with the July 2025 Offering #2, we paid H.C. Wainwright & Co. LLC, as placement agent (“Wainwright”) an aggregate cash fee equal to 7.5% of the gross proceeds from the sale of securities in the July 2025 Offering #2 and a management fee equal to 1.0% of the gross proceeds raised in the July 2025 Offering #2. We also issued Wainwright (or its designees) a warrant (the “Placement Agent Warrants #2”) to purchase up to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Shares #2 sold in the offering, or warrants to purchase up to 48,128 shares of Common Stock, at an exercise price equal to 125.0% of the offering price per share of our common stock, or $5.8438 per share. In addition, upon the cash exercise of July 2025 Warrants #2, we also agreed to issue Wainwright (or its designees) additional Placement Agent Warrants #2 to purchase an amount of share of our common stock equal to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Investor Warrants Shares #2 issued upon cash exercise of the July 2025 Investor Warrants #2. The Placement Agent Warrants #2 are (or will be) exercisable immediately upon issuance for a period of five years following the commencement of the sales pursuant to the July 2025 Offering #2.
The closing of the sales of these securities under the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #2 took place on July 17, 2025.
July 2025 Registered Direct Offering and Concurrent Private Placement #1
On July 2, 2025, we entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1”) with certain institutional investors, pursuant to which we agreed to sell 714,286 shares (the “July 2025 Shares #1”) of our common stock, at a purchase price of $7.00 per share (the “July 2025 Offering #1”) for gross proceeds of approximately $5 million, prior to deducting placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses payable by us. We used approximately $320,000 of the net proceeds from the July 2025 Offering #1 for the repayment of certain outstanding promissory notes and intend to use the remainder for working capital and other general corporate purposes. The July 2025 Shares #1 were offered pursuant to our shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-267921), which was declared effective by the Securities Exchange Commission on October 26, 2022.
Concurrently with the sale of July 2025 Shares #1 pursuant to the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1 in a private placement, for each July 2025 Share #1 purchased by the investors, such investors received an unregistered warrant (the “July 2025 Investor Warrants #1”) to purchase one share of our common stock, or 714,286 shares in the aggregate (the “July 2024 Investor Warrant Shares #1”). The July 2025 Investor Warrants #1 have an exercise price of $6.88 per share and are exercisable immediately upon issuance for a twenty-four month period following the date of effectiveness of resale registration statement providing for a resale of the shares underlying the July 2025 Investor Warrants #1, which resale registration statement is required to be filed within 30-days of the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1.
In connection with the July 2025 Offering #1, we paid Wainwright, as placement agent an aggregate cash fee equal to 7.5% of the gross proceeds from the sale of securities in the July 2025 Offering #1 and a management fee equal to 1.0% of the gross proceeds raised in the July 2025 Offering #1. We also issued Wainwright (or its designees) a warrant (the “Placement Agent Warrants #1”) to purchase up to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Shares #1 sold in the offering, or warrants to purchase up to 53,571 shares of our common stock, at an exercise price equal to 125.0% of the offering price per share of our common stock, or $8.75 per share. In addition, upon the cash exercise of July 2025 Warrants #1, we also agreed to issue Wainwright (or its designees) additional Placement Agent Warrants to purchase an amount of share of Common Stock equal to 7.5% of the aggregate number of July 2025 Investor Warrants Shares #2 issued upon cash exercise of the July 2025 Investor Warrants #1. The Placement Agent Warrants #! are (or will be) exercisable immediately upon issuance for a period of five years following the commencement of the sales pursuant to the July 2025 Offering #1.
The closing of the sales of these securities under the July 2025 Purchase Agreement #1 took place on July 7, 2025.
Horizon License
On June 26, 2025, we entered into a Horizon Software Agreement (the “Horizon Agreement’) with Horizon Globex GmbH, a company incorporated in Switzerland (“Horizon”) pursuant to which Horizon granted us a royalty free, paid-up, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, unrestricted license to use the Licensed Software (as defined in the Horizon Agreement) with our branding and image, in the United States to provide capital-raising and secondary trading services to its clients in consideration for the issuance of 500,0000 shares (the “Horizon Shares”) of our common stock to Horizon or its affiliate. The Horizon Agreement may be terminated by either party upon a default in the performance of any material obligation under the Agreement is not cured within 30-days after receipt of such notice. In addition, the Horizon Agreement may be terminated immediately by either party in the event the other party files or has filed against it any petition for relief under any bankruptcy statute or similar statute of any jurisdiction, or an order for relief in any bankruptcy or reorganization proceeding is entered against the other party and such order remains undischarged for a period of sixty (60) days; or a receiver is appointed for the other Party; or the other party is dissolved or liquidated, or ceases to carry on its business, or makes an assignment for the benefit of its creditors.
ATM Increase
On June 23, 2025, we filed a prospectus supplement under our At-The-Market-Offering Agreement with Wainwright for an aggregate of $975,000 of additional shares of our common stock. From June 23, 2025 to June 25, 2025, we sold 229,404 shares of our common stock through Wainwright at an average price of approximately $4.25 per share, resulting in aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $974,747, for which it paid Wainwright approximately $29,242 in commissions and other issuance costs of $1,438, resulting in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $944,067.
June 2025 Private Placement
On June 10, 2025, we entered into subscription agreements (the “Subscription Agreements”) with ten accredited investors to issue an aggregate of 118,750 shares (the “June 2025 Shares”) of our common stock at a purchase price of $4.00 per share (the “Purchase Price”) in a private placement, for gross proceeds of $475,000. We agreed to file a registration statement on providing for the resale of the Shares (the “Resale Registration Statement”) within 60 calendar days of the initial closing of the private placement (the “Filing Date”) and to use reasonable best efforts to cause the Resale Registration Statement to be declared effective by the SEC within 90 calendar days following the final closing of the private placement date of the Filing Date. Until the June 2025 shares are sold in accordance with applicable law, the Subscriber agrees to vote the shares in favor of all resolutions recommended by our Board of Directors, and to deliver any proxy or voting instruction required by us to effectuate this obligation. The Subscription Agreements include a price adjustment provision whereby if the Company issues additional shares at a price lower than the Purchase Price during the period beginning on the date of the Subscription Agreements and prior to the date that is 6-months following the Filing Date, investors will receive additional shares to reflect the lower price, subject to the minimum price as defined under Nasdaq Rule 5635(d) on the date the Subscription Agreements were signed, which was $2.56. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes.
Amendment to Netcapital 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan
On June 6, 2025, our board of directors approved an amendment (the “Plan Amendment”) to the Netcapital 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”) subject to stockholder approval, to: (i) increase the number of shares authorized for issuance under the Plan to 1,547,556 shares, and (ii) crease the evergreen limit from 5% to 10% of our outstanding shares, to allow for greater flexibility in future equity awards.
Formation of Advisory Boards
On June 6, 2025, our Board of Directors approved the formation of two strategic advisory boards: the Crypto Advisory Board and the Game Advisory Board.
We entered into advisory agreements with each member of the Crypto and Game Advisory Boards. Under these advisory agreements, each advisor will provide us with sector-specific strategic guidance, marketing insight, partnership referrals, and other advisory services relevant to their industry expertise. The initial term of each advisory agreement is eighteen months and may be extended by mutual agreement of the parties. In consideration of the services rendered under these advisory agreements, we issued a total of 783,722 non-qualified stock options to the advisors of the Crypto and Game Advisory Boards under the Plan as amended by the Plan Amendment. Such options are not exercisable unless and until our stockholders approve the Plan Amendment.
May 2025 Note Financings
In May 2025, we completed the sale of debt pursuant to two separate securities purchase agreements with 1800 Diagonal Lending LLC, a Virginia limited liability company, under which it issued the following convertible promissory notes:
A convertible promissory note in the principal amount of $61,360, for a purchase price of $52,000, reflecting an original issue discount of $9,360. The note carried a one-time interest charge of 12% and is repayable in ten (10) monthly payments of $6,872.30 beginning May 30, 2025. It matures on February 28, 2026 and is convertible into shares of common stock following an event of default, subject to a 25% discount to the then-current market price, subject to Nasdaq shareholder approval limits. We prepaid the note in full on July 8, 2025, with a remittance of $52,779 after having made two of the 10 scheduled monthly payments.
A second convertible bridge note in the principal amount of $64,960, for a purchase price of $56,000, with an original issue discount of $8,960. The note also carried a 12% one-time interest charge and is repayable in five (5) monthly payments beginning October 30, 2025. It shares the same maturity date and default-based conversion rights as the first note. We prepaid the note in full on July 8, 2025, with a remittance of $69,845.
On May 1, 2025, we completed a private financing transaction with a single accredited investor and issued an unsecured, non-convertible promissory note in the principal amount of $400,000. The note was issued at a 50% OID for gross proceeds of $200,000. The note bears interest at 8% per annum, matures three months from the issuance date, and is prepayable at any time without penalty. In the event of default, the interest rate increases to 20% per annum. The note is due on August 1, 2025.
Employees
As of April 30, 2025, the Company had three members of its senior corporate personnel. As of April 30, 2025, we had approximately 20 employees, all of which were full time. None of our employees are unionized or covered by collective bargaining agreements, and we consider our current employee relations to be good.
Corporate History and Information
The Company was incorporated in Utah in 1984 as DBS Investments, Inc. (“DBS”), merged with ValueSetters L.L.C. in December of 2003 and changed its name to ValueSetters, Inc. In November 2010, the Company purchased NetGames.com to drive subscription revenue through online games such as chess.net. In the summer of 2017, Dr. Cecilia Lenk and Coreen Kraysler, CFA were hired to bring in consulting and advisory business. In November 2020, the Company purchased Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. and changed the name of the parent company from ValueSetters, Inc. to Netcapital Inc., while the name of the consulting business was changed to Netcapital Advisors. In November 2021, the Company purchased MSG Development Corp. We formed Netcapital Securities Inc. in 2024.
Our principal executive offices are located at One Lincoln Street, Boston, Massachusetts and our telephone number is 781-925-1700. We maintain a corporate website with the address https://www.netcapitalinc.com, our funding portal maintains a website with the address http://www.netcapital.com, Netcapital Advisors maintains a website at http://www.netcapitaladvisors.com and our broker dealer also uses https://www.netcapital.com. We have not incorporated by reference into this Report on Form 10-K the information on any of our websites and you should not consider any of such information to be a part of this document. Our website addresses are included in this document for reference only.
We make available free of charge through our corporate website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports through a link to the EDGAR database as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to the SEC. You can also read and copy any materials we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. You can obtain additional information about the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1.800.SEC.0330. In addition, the SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including all of our filings.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS.
Certain factors may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Financial Position
Our financial situation creates doubt whether we will continue as a going concern.
As of April 30, 2025, the Company had negative working capital of $5,096,163 and for the year ended April 30 2025, the Company had an operating loss of $8,321,317 and net cash used in operating activities amounted to $5,339,211. There can be no assurances that we will be able to achieve a level of revenues adequate to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or additional financing through private placements, public offerings and/or bank financing necessary to support our working capital requirements. Our management has determined, based on its recent history and the negative cash flow from operations, that it is unlikely that its plan will sufficiently alleviate or mitigate, to a sufficient level, the relevant conditions or events noted above. To the extent that funds generated from any private placements, public offerings and/or bank financing, if available, are insufficient, we will have to raise additional working capital. No assurance can be given that additional financing will be available, or if available, will be on acceptable terms. Accordingly, our management has concluded that these conditions raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. There can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve our business plan objectives or be able to achieve or maintain cash-flow-positive operating results. If we are unable to generate adequate funds from operations or raise sufficient additional funds, we may not be able to repay our existing debt, continue to operate our business network, respond to competitive pressures or fund our operations. As a result, we may be required to significantly reduce, reorganize, discontinue, or shut down our operations.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish certain rights.
We may seek additional capital through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, strategic collaborations and alliances or licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity, convertible debt securities or other equity-based derivative securities, your ownership interest will be diluted and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. Any indebtedness we incur could involve restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, acquire or license intellectual property rights, declare dividends, make capital expenditures and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. Furthermore, the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. If we raise additional funds through strategic collaborations and alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.
Our obligations to the U.S. Small Business Administration is secured by security interests in our assets, so if we default on those obligations, they could foreclose on some or all of our assets.
Our obligations to the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) is secured by security interests in our assets. As of April 30, 2025. approximately $0.5 million was owed to the SBA. If we default on our obligations under these agreements, the SBA could foreclose on their security interests and liquidate some or all of these assets, which would harm our financial condition and results of operations and would require us to reduce or cease operations and possibly seek bankruptcy protection.
The loan and security documents encompassing our secured obligations to the SBA contain restrictive covenants which limit management’s discretion to operate our business
In order to obtain the SBA loan, we agreed to certain covenants that place significant restrictions on, among other things, our ability to incur additional indebtedness with any superior liens on the collateral, to create liens or other encumbrances, , and to sell or otherwise dispose of assets and merge or consolidate with other entities. Any failure to comply with these covenants i could result in an event of default, which could trigger an acceleration of the related debt. If we were unable to repay the debt upon any such acceleration, the SBA could seek to foreclose on our assets in an effort to seek repayment under the loans. If the SBA was successful, we would be unable to conduct our business as it is presently conducted and our ability to generate revenues and fund our ongoing operations would be materially adversely affected.
We recently recognized impairments totaling $17.9 million to the value of several of our portfolio company investments, which may adversely affect our financial condition and the value of our securities.
On April 30, 2025, the Company completed a quarterly review of its equity investments in accordance with ASC 321 and disclosed on May 5, 2025 that it had recognized impairment losses totaling approximately $17,935,476 related to multiple portfolio companies. These impairments were based on qualitative indicators including the resignation of key personnel, cessation of operations, regulatory setbacks, failure to file required annual reports, or technological obsolescence, depending on the specific issuer.
These non-cash impairment charges materially reduced the Company’s total assets and shareholders’ equity. These charges may affect the Company’s ability to raise capital, impact investor confidence, and negatively influence the market price of its common stock. The Company does not expect to recover value from the impaired investments.
Additionally, the Company’s evaluation of remaining investments is ongoing, and further impairments may be recognized in future reporting periods if management concludes that other securities have experienced a decline in fair value that is not expected to recover. Future impairment losses may continue to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position and operating results.
Risks Related to Our Business and Growth Strategy
We have a limited operating history and our profits were previously generated primarily by unrealized gains from equity securities we own in other companies. Although we were previously profitable, we have suffered losses the last few years and there is no guarantee that we will return to profitability.
We were incorporated in the State of Utah in April 1984. We reported a net loss of $28,301,325 in the year ended April 30, 2025. Although we reported earnings in the years ended April 30, 2023 and 2022, the majority of our earnings came from unrealized gains in equity securities that we own. These securities have a value on our books, but are not liquid, and furthermore, we recognized an impairment loss in fiscal 2025 of approximately $19.9 million on the equity securities that we own. Despite our prior reported earnings, there is no guarantee that we will ever become profitable in the future.
We have substantial customer concentration, with a limited number of customers accounting for a substantial portion of our revenues.
We currently derive a significant portion of our revenues from a limited number of customers. There are inherent risks whenever a large percentage of total revenues are concentrated with a limited number of customers. For the year ended April 30, 2025, the Company had one customer that constituted 20% of its revenues, and a second customer that accounted for 11% of its revenues. For the year ended April 30, 2024, the Company had one customer that constituted 25% of its revenues, a second customer that constituted 22% of its revenues, and a third customer that constituted 22% of its revenues. It is not possible for us to predict the future level of demand for our services that will be generated by these customers or new customers, or the future demand for the products and services of these customers or new customers. If any of these customers experience declining or delayed sales due to market, economic or competitive conditions, we could be pressured to reduce the prices we charge for our products which could have an adverse effect on our margins and financial position and could negatively affect our revenues and results of operations and/or trading price of our common stock.
Our debt level could negatively impact our financial condition, results of operations and business prospects.
As of April 30, 2025, we had $2,683,561 of principal indebtedness outstanding and we have borrowed money on three occasions from the SBA. Our level of debt could have significant consequences to our shareholders, including the following:
requiring the dedication of a substantial portion of cash flow from operations to make payments on debt, thereby reducing the availability of cash flow for working capital, capital expenditures and other general business activities;
requiring a substantial portion of our corporate cash reserves to be held as a reserve for debt service, limiting our ability to invest in new growth opportunities;
limiting the ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and general corporate and other activities;
limiting the flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in the business and industry in which we operate;
increasing our vulnerability to both general and industry-specific adverse economic conditions;
putting us at a competitive disadvantage vs. less leveraged competitors; and
increasing vulnerability to changes in the prevailing interest rates.
Our ability to make payments of principal and interest, or to refinance our indebtedness, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow in the future to service our debt because of factors beyond our control, including but not limited to our ability to market our products and expand our operations. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flows, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as restructuring debt or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations.
We operate in a highly regulated industry.
We are subject to extensive regulation and failure to comply with such regulation could have an adverse effect on our business. Further, our subsidiary Netcapital Funding Portal Inc is registered as a funding portal. As a funding portal we have to comply with stringent regulations, and the operation of our funding portal is frequently subject to examination, constraints on its business, and in some cases fines. Our wholly owned subsidiary Netcapital Securities Inc is a broker-dealer that is registered with FINRA. It is subject to additional regulation and supervision of the SEC and FINRA, including without limitation Rule 15c3-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Uniform Net Capital Rule). In addition, some of the restrictions and rules applicable to our subsidiary could adversely affect and limit some of our business plans.
Our funding portal’s service offerings are relatively new in an industry that is still quickly evolving .
The principal securities regulations that we work with, Rule 506(c) and Reg CF, have only been in effect in their current form since 2013 and 2016, respectively. Our ability to continue to penetrate the market remains uncertain as potential issuer companies may choose to use different platforms or providers (including, in the case of Rule 506(c) and Regulation A, using their own online platform), or determine alternative methods of financing. Investors may decide to invest their money elsewhere. Further, our potential market may not be as large, or our industry may not grow as rapidly as anticipated. Success will likely be a factor of investing in the development and implementation of marketing campaigns, repeat business from both issuer companies and investors, and favorable changes in the regulatory environment.
We may be liable for misstatements made by issuers in offerings through our funding portal.
Under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act, issuers making offerings through our funding portal may be liable for inappropriate disclosures, including untrue statements of material facts or for omitting information that could make the statements misleading. This liability may also extend in Reg CF offerings to funding portals, such as our subsidiary. Even though due diligence defenses may be available, there can be no assurance that if we were sued, we would prevail. Further, even if we do succeed, lawsuits are time consuming and expensive, and being a party to such actions may cause us reputational harm that would negatively impact our business. Moreover, even if we are not liable or a party to a lawsuit or enforcement action, some of our clients have been and will be subject to such proceedings. Any involvement we may have, including responding to document production requests, may be time-consuming and expensive as well.
We operate in a regulatory environment that is evolving and uncertain.
The regulatory framework for online capital formation or crowdfunding is very new. The regulations that govern our operations have been in existence for a very few years. Further, there are constant discussions among legislators and regulators with respect to changing the regulatory environment. New laws and regulations could be adopted in the United States and abroad. Further, existing laws and regulations may be interpreted in ways that would impact our operations, including how we communicate and work with investors and the companies that use our services and the types of securities that our clients can offer and sell on our platform.
We have an evolving business model.
Our business model is one of innovation, including continuously working to expand our product lines and services to our clients. For example, our subsidiary Netcapital Securities received its broker-dealer registration with FINRA in November 2024 and we are continuing our relationship with Templum into becoming an alternative trading system. It is unclear whether these services will be successful. Further, we continuously try to offer additional types of services, and we cannot offer any assurance that any of them will be successful. From time to time, we may also modify aspects of our business model relating to our service offerings. We cannot offer any assurance that these or any other modifications will be successful or will not result in harm to the business. We may not be able to manage growth effectively, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and negatively affect our operating results.
Our compliance is focused on U.S. laws and we have not analyzed foreign laws regarding the participation of non-U.S. residents.
Some of the investment opportunities posted on our platform are open to non-U.S. residents. We have not researched all the applicable foreign laws and regulations, and we have not set up our structure to be compliant with foreign laws. It is possible that we may be deemed in violation of those laws, which could result in fines or penalties as well as reputational harm. Any violation of foreign laws may limit our ability in the future to assist companies in accessing money from those investors, and compliance with those laws and regulations may limit our business operations and plans for future expansion.
Our cash flow is reliant on one main type of service.
Most of our cash-flow generating services are variants on one type of service: providing a platform for online capital formation. Our revenues are therefore dependent upon the market for online capital formation. As such, any downturn in the market could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We depend on key personnel and face challenges recruiting needed personnel.
Our future success depends on the efforts of a small number of key personnel, including the founder of our subsidiary, Netcapital Funding Portal Inc., our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and our compliance, engineering and marketing teams. Our software engineering team, as well as our compliance team and our marketing team are critical to continually innovate and improve our products while operating in a highly regulated industry. In addition, due to the specialized expertise required, we may not be able to recruit the individuals needed for our business needs. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in attracting and retaining the personnel we require to operate and be innovative.
We are vulnerable to hackers and cyber-attacks.
As an internet-based business, we may be vulnerable to hackers who may access the data of our investors and the issuer companies that utilize our platform. Further, any significant disruption in service on our funding portal platform or in our computer systems could reduce the attractiveness of our platform and result in a loss of investors and companies interested in using our platform. Further, we rely on a third-party technology provider to provide some of our back-up technology as well as act as our escrow agent. Any disruptions of services or cyber-attacks either on our technology provider, escrow agent, or on us could harm our reputation and materially negatively impact our financial condition and business.
Our funding portal relies on one escrow agent to hold investment commitments for issuers.
We currently rely on Luminate Bank to provide all escrow services related to offerings on our platform. Any change in this relationship will require us to find another escrow agent and escrow bank. This change may cause us delays as well as additional costs in transitioning our technology. We are not allowed to operate our funding portal business without a qualified third-party escrow bank. There are a limited number of banks that provide this service. As such, if our relationship with our escrow agent is terminated, we may have difficulty finding a replacement which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
If our wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Funding Portal Inc., fails to comply with its obligations under the license agreement with Netcapital Systems LLC under which the technology to operate our funding portal is licensed to Netcapital Funding Portal Inc., we could lose rights necessary to operate our funding portal which are important to our business.
Our wholly owned subsidiary, Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. has licensed the technology necessary to operate our funding portal from our majority stockholder, Netcapital Systems LLC, of which Mr. Frishman owns a 29% interest. These rights are extremely important to our business. If Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. fails to comply with any obligations under this license agreement, such license agreement may be subject to termination in whole or in part, which could severely impact our ability to operate our funding portal which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, and results of operations.
In addition, disputes may arise regarding the technology subject to a license agreement, including:
the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;
the extent to which our processes infringe on the technology of Netcapital Systems LLC that is not subject to the license agreement;
the ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of technology by Netcapital Systems LLC and us.
Disputes over technology under the license agreement with Netcapital Systems LLC may prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current license agreement on acceptable terms, and we may be unable to successfully operate our funding portal. In addition, any failure of Netcapital Systems LLC to service the technology subject to the license agreement or to operate its website could result in our inability to operate our funding portal which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Netcapital Systems LLC relies on third-party software for the technology subject to the license agreement with Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. that may be difficult to replace, or which could cause errors or failures of our funding portal.
Netcapital Systems LLC relies on software licensed from third parties for the technology subject to the license agreement with Netcapital Funding Portal Inc. This software may not continue to be available at reasonable prices or on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss by Netcapital Systems LLC of the right to use any of this software could significantly increase our expenses and otherwise result in delays in the provisioning of our funding portal until equivalent technology is either developed by us or Netcapital Systems LLC, or, if available, is identified, obtained, and integrated, which could harm our business. Any errors or defects in third-party software could result in errors or a failure of our funding portal which could harm our business.
We may not be able to protect all of our intellectual property.
Our profitability may depend in part on our ability to effectively protect our proprietary rights, including obtaining trademarks for our brand names, protecting our products and websites, maintaining the secrecy of our internal workings and preserving our trade secrets, as well as our ability to operate without inadvertently infringing on the proprietary rights of others. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain future protection for our intellectual property or defend our current trademarks and future trademarks and patents. Further, policing and protecting our intellectual property against unauthorized use by third parties is time-consuming and expensive, and certain countries may not even recognize our intellectual property rights. There can also be no assurance that a third party will not assert infringement claims with respect to our products or technologies. Any litigation for both protecting our intellectual property or defending our use of certain technologies could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition, regardless of the outcome of such litigation.
Our strategy to purchase a portion of early-stage companies may provide us with investments that have no liquidity.
It is our strategy to sometimes purchase, at an affordable price, part or all of early-stage companies and cross pollinate the ideas, technology and expertise within these companies to enhance the operations, profits and market share of all the entities. That strategy may result in us diverting management attention and advisory resources to do work for early-stage companies that pay for the work with equity, which becomes impaired in value or never becomes a liquid asset. For all of these early-stage companies, the future liquidity and value of our investments cannot be guaranteed, and no market may exist for us to generate gains from our investments in early-stage companies. As of April 30, 2025, we have recognized a non-cash loss of $19.9 million from the write-down of various equity securities that we own in these early-stage companies. Statistics show that early-stage companies are more likely to fail than to succeed.
Our business depends on the reliability of the infrastructure that supports the Internet and the viability of the Internet.
The growth of Internet usage has caused frequent interruptions and delays in processing and transmitting data over the Internet. There can be no assurance that the Internet infrastructure or the Company’s own network systems will continue to be able to support the demands placed on it by the continued growth of the Internet, the overall online securities industry or that of our customers.
End-users of our software depend on Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”), online service providers and our system infrastructure for access to the Internet sites that we operate. Many of these services have experienced service outages in the past and could experience service outages, delays and other difficulties due to system failures, stability or interruption. As a result, we may not be able to meet a level of service that we have promised to our subscribers, and we may be in breach of our contractual commitments, which could materially adversely affect our business, revenues, operating results and financial condition.
We are dependent on general economic conditions.
Our business model is dependent on investors investing in the companies presented on our platforms. Investment dollars are disposable income. Our business model is thus dependent on national and international economic conditions. Adverse national and international economic conditions may reduce the future availability of investment dollars, which would negatively impact our revenues and possibly our ability to continue operations. It is not possible to accurately predict the potential adverse impacts on the Company, if any, of current economic conditions on its financial condition, operating results and cash flow.
We face significant market competition.
We facilitate online capital formation. Though this is a new market, we compete against a variety of entrants in the market as well as likely new entrants into the market. Some of these follow a regulatory model that is different from ours and might provide them with competitive advantages. New entrants could include those that may already have a foothold in the securities industry, including some established broker-dealers. Further, online capital formation is not the only way to address helping start-ups raise capital, and the Company has to compete with a number of other approaches, including traditional venture capital investments, loans and other traditional methods of raising funds and companies conducting crowdfunding raises on their own websites. Additionally, some competitors and future competitors may be better capitalized than us, which would give them a significant advantage in marketing and operations.
Moreover, as we continue to expand our offerings, we will continue to face headwinds and compete with companies that are more established and/or have more financial resources than we do and/or new entrants bringing disruptive technologies and/or ideas.
Intense competition could prevent us from increasing our market share and growing our revenues.
We compete with a number of public and private companies and most of our competitors have significant financial resources and occupy entrenched positions in the market with name-brand recognition. We also face challenges from new Internet sites that aim to attract subscribers who seek to play interactive games or invest in public or private securities. Such companies may be able to attract significantly more subscribers because of new marketing ideas and user interface concepts.
Increased competition from current and future competitors may in the future materially adversely affect our business, revenues, operating results and financial condition.
We may require additional financing in the future to fund our operations.
We may need additional capital in the future to continue to execute our business plan. Therefore, we will be dependent upon additional capital in the form of either debt or equity to continue our operations. At the present time, we do not have arrangements to raise all of the needed additional capital, and we will need to identify potential investors and negotiate appropriate arrangements with them. Our ability to obtain additional financing will be subject to a number of factors, including market conditions, our operating performance and investor sentiment. If we are unable to raise additional capital when required or on acceptable terms, we may have to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue our operations.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish certain rights.
We may seek additional capital through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, strategic collaborations and alliances or licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity, convertible debt securities or other equity-based derivative securities, your ownership interest will be diluted and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. Any indebtedness we incur could involve restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, acquire or license intellectual property rights, declare dividends, make capital expenditures and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. Furthermore, the issuance of additional securities, whether equity or debt, by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. If we raise additional funds through strategic collaborations and alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, or otherwise agree to terms unfavorable to us, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.
We may make acquisitions or form joint ventures that are unsuccessful.
Our ability to grow is partially dependent on our ability to successfully acquire other companies, which creates substantial risk. In order to pursue a growth by acquisition strategy successfully, we must identify suitable candidates for these transactions; however, because of our limited funds, we may not be able to purchase those companies that we have identified as potential acquisition candidates. Additionally, we may have difficulty managing post-closing issues such as the integration into our corporate structure. Integration issues are complex, time consuming and expensive and, without proper planning and implementation, could significantly disrupt our business, including, but not limited to, the diversion of management’s attention, the loss of key business and/or personnel from the acquired company, unanticipated events, and legal liabilities.
Our future growth depends on our ability to develop and retain customers.
Our future growth depends to a large extent on our ability to effectively anticipate and adapt to customer requirements and offer services that meet customer demands. If we are unable to attract new customers and/or retain new customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.
We will need to attract, train and retain additional highly qualified senior executives and technical and managerial personnel in the future.
We continue to seek technical and managerial staff members, although we have limited resources to compensate them until we have raised additional capital or developed a business that generates consistent cash flow from operations. We believe it is important to negotiate with potential candidates and, if appropriate, engage them on a part-time basis or on a project basis and compensate them at least partially, with stock-based compensation, when appropriate. There is a high demand for highly trained and managerial staff members. If we are not able to fill these positions, it may have an adverse effect on our business.
We may not be able to protect all of our intellectual property.
Our profitability may depend in part on our ability to effectively protect our proprietary rights, including obtaining trademarks for our brand names, protecting our products and websites, maintaining the secrecy of our internal workings and preserving our trade secrets, as well as our ability to operate without inadvertently infringing on the proprietary rights of others. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain future protections for our intellectual property or defend our current trademarks and future trademarks and patents. Further, policing and protecting our intellectual property against unauthorized use by third parties is time-consuming and expensive, and certain countries may not even recognize our intellectual property rights. There can also be no assurance that a third party will not assert infringement claims with respect to our products or technologies. Any litigation for both protecting our intellectual property or defending our use of certain technologies could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition, regardless of the outcome of such litigation.
Our revenues and operating results are subject to fluctuations.
It is difficult to accurately forecast our revenues and operating results, and these could fluctuate in the future due to a number of factors. These factors may include adverse changes in: number of investors and amount of investors’ dollars, the success of world securities markets, general economic conditions, our ability to market our platform to companies and investors, headcount and other operating costs, and general industry and regulatory conditions and requirements. The Company’s operating results may fluctuate from year to year due to the factors listed above and others not listed. At times, these fluctuations may be significant and could impact our ability to operate our business.
Natural disasters and other events beyond our control could materially adversely affect us.
Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce and the global economy, and thus could have a strong negative effect on us. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, fire, power shortages, pandemics and other events beyond our control. Although we maintain crisis management and disaster response plans, such events could make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver our services to our customers and could decrease demand for our services. Since the spring of 2020, large segments of the U.S. and global economies were impacted by COVID-19, a significant portion of the U.S. population were subject to “stay at home” or similar requirements. The extent of the impact of COVID-19 on our operational and financial performance will depend on certain developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak, impact on our customers (both issuers using our services and investors investing on our platform) and our sales cycles, impact on our customer, employee or industry events, and effect on our vendors, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. At this point, the extent to which COVID-19 may impact our financial condition or results of operations is uncertain. To date, the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly impacted global markets, U.S. employment numbers, as well as the business prospects of many small businesses (our potential clients). A significant part of our business model is based on receiving a percentage of the investments made through our platform and services. Further, we are dependent on investments in our offerings to fund our business. However, to date, other than working remotely, COVID-19 has not had a negative impact on the Company. While our business has not yet been impacted by COVID-19, to the extent COVID-19 continues and limits investment capital or personally impacts any of our key employees, it may have a significant impact on our results and operations.
Acquisitions may have unanticipated consequences that could harm our business and our financial condition.
Any acquisition that we pursue, whether successfully completed or not, involves risks, including:
material adverse effects on our operating results, particularly in the fiscal quarters immediately following the acquisition of acquired entities that are integrated into our operations;
risks associated with entering into markets or conducting operations where we have no or limited prior experience;
problems retaining key personnel;
potential impairment of tangible and intangible assets and goodwill acquired in the acquisition;
potential unknown liabilities;
difficulties of integration and failure to realize anticipated synergies; and
disruption of our ongoing business, including diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns.
Future acquisitions may be accomplished through a cash purchase transaction, the issuance of our equity securities or a combination of both, could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities and impairment charges related to goodwill and other intangible assets, any of which could harm our business and financial condition.
If we do not effectively protect our customers’ credit and debit card data, or other personal information, we could be exposed to data loss, litigation, liability and reputational damage.
In connection with credit and debit card sales, we transmit confidential credit and debit card information by way of secure online networks. Although we use private networks, third parties may have the technology or know-how to breach the security of the customer information transmitted in connection with credit and debit card sales, and our security measures and those of our technology vendors may not effectively prohibit others from obtaining improper access to this information. If a person were able to circumvent these security measures, he or she could destroy or steal valuable information or disrupt our operations. Any security breach could expose us to risks of data loss, litigation and liability and could seriously disrupt our operations and any resulting negative publicity could significantly harm our reputation.
We could be harmed by improper disclosure or loss of sensitive or confidential Company, employee, associate or customer data, including personal data.
In connection with the operation of our business, we plan to store, process and transmit data, including personal and payment information, about our employees, customers, associates and candidates, a portion of which is confidential and/or personally sensitive. Unauthorized disclosure or loss of sensitive or confidential data may occur through a variety of methods. These include, but are not limited to, systems failure, employee negligence, fraud or misappropriation, or unauthorized access to or through our information systems, whether by our employees or third parties, including a cyberattack by computer programmers, hackers, members of organized crime and/or state-sponsored organizations, who may develop and deploy viruses, worms or other malicious software programs.
Such disclosure, loss or breach could harm our reputation and subject us to government sanctions and liability under our contracts and laws that protect sensitive or personal data and confidential information, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenues. It is possible that security controls over sensitive or confidential data and other practices we and our third-party vendors follow may not prevent the improper access to, disclosure of, or loss of such information. The potential risk of security breaches and cyberattacks may increase as we introduce new services and offerings, such as mobile technology. Further, data privacy is subject to frequently changing rules and regulations, which sometimes conflict among the various jurisdictions in which we provide services. Any failure or perceived failure to successfully manage the collection, use, disclosure, or security of personal information or other privacy related matters, or any failure to comply with changing regulatory requirements in this area, could result in legal liability or impairment to our reputation in the marketplace.
Failure to recognize, respond to and effectively manage the accelerated impact of social media could adversely impact our business.
In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the use of social media platforms, including blogs, chat platforms, social media websites, and other forms of Internet based communications which allow individuals access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. The rising popularity of social media and other consumer-oriented technologies has increased the speed and accessibility of information dissemination. Many social media platforms immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on accuracy of the content posted. Information posted on such platforms at any time may be adverse to our interests and/or may be inaccurate. The dissemination of information via social media could harm our business, reputation, financial condition, and results of operations, regardless of the information’s accuracy. The damage may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction.
In addition, social media is frequently used to communicate with our customers and the public in general. Failure by us to use social media effectively or appropriately, particularly as compared to our brands’ respective competitors, could lead to a decline in brand value, customer visits and revenue. Other risks associated with the use of social media include improper disclosure of proprietary information, negative comments about our brands, exposure of personally identifiable information, fraud, hoaxes or malicious dissemination of false information. The inappropriate use of social media by our customers or employees could increase our costs, lead to litigation or result in negative publicity that could damage our reputation and adversely affect our results of operations.
Risks Related to Receipt of Securities for Services
A significant portion of our total assets are held in equity securities of early-stage companies, which are illiquid and subject to volatility, and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Payment related to the consulting and advisory services provided by Netcapital Advisors was often made through equity stakes from such customers. As of April 30, 2025, approximately $5.7 million of our assets are equity securities issued by companies whose securities do not trade on public markets. The securities issued are typically in private companies with no established trading market for their securities, that often have limited operating histories, limited operating cash, and negative cash flows. Additionally, these securities are primarily restricted, and are subject to legal holding periods pursuant to Rule 144 or other applicable exemptions. The stock price of such issuers is often volatile, unpredictable, and with limited liquidity, and the value of such securities on the date of receipt compared to the date when we are able to legally sell the securities may decrease significantly. The value ascribed to our assets in our financial statements as of a particular date may be materially greater than or less than the value that would be realized if our assets were to be liquidated as of such date. Accordingly, the value of such holdings may change over time due to factors that we do not control, such as issuance of securities by such companies at lower prices or other market factors. During the year ended April 30, 2024, we recognized an unrealized loss of approximately $2.7 million on the value of our equity securities due to the decline in value of a single issuer, which represented an impairment of more than 80% of the previous value of our holdings in such issuer, which resulted in a reduction of our retained earnings. During the year ended April 30, 2025, we determined that the equity securities we held in twelve issuers had become worthless and we recorded an impairment loss of $19.9 million. Changes to the value of our holdings could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We are not, and do not intend to become, regulated as an investment company under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the 40 Act, (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions) and if we are deemed an “investment company” under the 40 Act applicable restrictions would make it impractical for us to operate as contemplated.
The 40 Act and the rules thereunder (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions) provide certain protections to investors and impose certain restrictions on companies that are registered as investment companies. Among other things, such rules limit or prohibit transactions with affiliates, impose limitations on the issuance of debt and equity securities and impose certain governance requirements. We have not been and do not intend to become regulated as an investment company and we intend to conduct our activities so we will not be deemed to be an investment company under the 40 Act (and similar legislation in other jurisdictions).
The Company holds minority equity interests in a number of early-stage companies, often received as compensation for advisory or platform services. These holdings are considered investment securities under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”) for purposes of evaluating investment company status. Section 3(a)(1)(C) of the 1940 Act generally defines an “investment company” as an issuer that holds investment securities with a value exceeding 40% of its total assets (excluding cash and U.S. government securities) on an unconsolidated basis.
Although the Company’s investment securities represented a significant portion of its assets in prior periods, the Company performed the 40% asset test each quarter and concluded that the 40% threshold was not met. Furthermore, on April 30, 2025, the Company recognized impairment losses totaling approximately $19.9 million, materially reducing the value of its investment securities portfolio. As a result, the Company does not currently hold investment securities in excess of the 40% threshold under the 1940 Act.
Even with the impairment loss, the Company remains subject to ongoing evaluation under the 1940 Act. However, the Company is primarily engaged in a business other than investing, reinvesting, or trading in securities and does not anticipate the need to register under the 1940 Act. It continues to assess eligibility for an exclusion from investment company status, including the exemption under Section 3(b)(1) for companies that are primarily engaged in a non-investment business.
In order to ensure that we are not deemed to be an investment company, we may be required to materially restrict or limit the scope of our operations or plans related to us, we will be limited in the types of acquisitions that we may make and we may need to modify our organizational structure or dispose of assets that we would not otherwise dispose of. Moreover, if anything were to happen which would potentially cause us to be deemed an investment company under the 40 Act, it would be impractical for us to operate as intended pursuant to our platform and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected. In addition, if we were deemed an investment company we could become subject to significant regulatory restrictions, including limitations on its capital structure, prohibitions on certain transactions with affiliates, and requirements to register under the 1940 Act. Further, this designation could be subject to civil enforcement actions and investors may have rescission rights, any of which could materially and adversely affect the Company’s financial condition, operations, and stockholder value. Accordingly, we would be required to take extraordinary steps to address the situation, such as the modification and restructuring of our platform, which would materially adversely affect our ability to derive revenue.
Our consulting and advisory services have primarily been paid for in restricted shares of stock of our customers, which are often private companies with no established trading market for their securities.
For our consulting and advisory services, payment has previously primarily been made through issuance of equity securities of our customers instead of cash. The securities issued were in private companies with no established trading market for their securities. In the absence of a trading market, we may be unable to liquidate our investments, which will result in the loss of our investment.
Risks Related to Operation of our Proposed Secondary Trading Platform
We will be dependent on a third-party for operation of our proposed secondary trading platform. Any disruption in the services provided by such third-party provider could adversely affect our business. In addition, there is no guarantee that we will officially launch our secondary trading platform which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
In January 2023, we entered into the Templum License Agreement, to provide issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform with the potential for greater distribution and liquidity. Templum is a company that provides capital markets infrastructure for trading private equity securities, and operates an ATS with approval in 53 U.S. states and territories for the trading of unregistered or private securities. We began working with Templum on the design of the required software to enable issuers and investors on the Netcapital platform the ability to access the Templum ATS in order to have the ability to engage in secondary trading of securities, but we have paused our engagement with them. We do not control the operations of Templum or own the equipment used to provide such services. Further, the operation of the Templum ATS is (or any similar ATS will be) subject to extensive regulation and oversight. Accordingly, any regulatory delays or objections will result in delays in our ability to launch the proposed platform. In addition, because we cannot easily switch between operators of secondary trading platforms of this nature, any disruption of or interference, whether due to regulatory issues or natural disasters, cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures, or other similar events, would impact our operations and may adversely affect the ability of issuers and investors to utilize this platform. There is no obligation for Templum to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to renew our agreements on commercially reasonable terms, we may be forced to identify another suitable operator or develop our own secondary trading capabilities, and we may incur significant costs and possible service interruption in connection with doing so.
In addition, Templum may take actions beyond our control that could seriously harm our business, including:
discontinuing or limiting our access to its platform;
increasing pricing terms;
terminating or seeking to terminate our contractual relationship altogether; and
modifying or interpreting its terms of service or other policies in a manner that impacts our ability to run our business and operations.
In July 2024, we announced the launch of our beta version for this secondary trading platform and our goal was to offer such secondary trading platform through the Templum ATS to all issuers and investors on the Netcapital funding portal before the end of 2025 subject to compliance with all regulatory requirements, As of the date of this report, we have paused further development and roll-out while we reevaluate evolving market conditions and customer expectations. There is no guarantee that we will officially launch our secondary trading platform which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our customers may encounter difficulties with investing through our proposed secondary trading platform.
Institutions and individual investors may face significant risk when buying securities on our proposed secondary trading platform. These risks include the following:
private companies are not required to make periodic public filings, and therefore certain capitalization, operational and financial information may not be available for evaluation;
an investment may only be appropriate for investors with a long-term investment horizon and a capacity to absorb a loss of some or all of their investment;
the securities, when purchased, are generally highly illiquid, are often subject to further transfer restrictions, and no public market exists for such securities; and
transactions may fail to settle, which could harm our reputation.
We may become involved in disputes or litigation matters between customers with respect to failed transactions on our proposed secondary trading platform (such as in the event of delayed delivery or a failure to deliver securities).
We may become involved in disputes and litigation matters between customers with respect to transactions on our proposed secondary trading platform. There is a risk that clients may increasingly look to us to make them whole for delayed and/or broken trades. Customers may litigate over the failure of sellers to deliver securities or over the untimely deliveries of securities. Any litigation to which we are a party could be expensive and time consuming, regardless of the ultimate outcome, and the potential costs and risks of such litigation may incentivize us to settle, which could harm our reputation or have a material adverse effect on our business or results or operations.
Failure to launch our proposed secondary trading platform could result in continued lack of liquidity for investors in our target market. Should this lack of liquidity cause reduced investor interest in investing in the unregistered or private securities offered by our clients, they may be less inclined to use our platform which could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.
Lack of liquidity is a key issue for investors in private companies as private markets lack a liquidity feature in our targeted market. If we fail to launch our proposed secondary trading market, investors purchasing our clients’ securities may continue to have a lack of liquidity. Should such continued illiquidity cause reduced investor interest in investing in unregistered or private securities, our clients may be less inclined to use our funding platform and may seek additional alternatives for raising capital, which could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.
Risks Related to our Broker-Dealer Activities
Regulatory and legal uncertainties could harm our business.
The securities businesses are heavily regulated. Firms in financial service industries have been subject to an increasingly regulated environment over recent years, and penalties and fines sought by regulatory authorities have increased accordingly. Our funding portal and broker-dealer subsidiaries are subject to extensive regulations. Regulatory bodies include, but are not limited to, the SEC, FINRA, and the Nasdaq Stock Market. Our mode of operation and profitability may be directly affected by additional legislation changes in rules promulgated by various government agencies and self-regulatory organizations that oversee our businesses, and changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules. Noncompliance with applicable laws or regulations could result in sanctions being levied against us, including fines and censures, suspension or expulsion from a certain jurisdiction or market or the revocation or limitation of licenses. Noncompliance with applicable laws or regulations could adversely affect our reputation, prospects, revenues and earnings. In addition, changes in current laws or regulations or in governmental policies could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Stock exchanges, other self-regulatory organizations and state securities commissions can censure, fine, issue cease-and-desist orders, suspend or expel a funding portal, broker-dealer or any of its officers or employees. Our ability to comply with all applicable laws and rules is largely dependent on our internal systems to ensure compliance, as well as our ability to attract and retain qualified compliance personnel. We could be subject to disciplinary or other actions in the future due to claimed noncompliance, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. To continue to operate, we may have to comply with the regulatory controls of each jurisdiction in which we conduct, or intend to conduct business, the requirements of which may not be clearly defined.
Netcapital Securities Inc. may be fined or subject to other disciplinary or corrective actions if it does not maintain the capital and liquidity levels required by regulators.
The SEC, FINRA, and various other regulatory agencies have stringent rules with respect to the maintenance of specific levels of net capital by securities broker-dealers. The failure of Netcapital Securities Inc. to maintain the required net capital could result in suspension or revocation of registration by the SEC or suspension or expulsion by FINRA, and could ultimately lead to liquidation of Netcapital Securities Inc. If such net capital rules are changed or expanded, or if there is an unusually large charge against net capital, operations that require an intensive use of capital could be limited. Such operations may include investing activities, marketing and the financing of customer account balances. Also, our ability to withdraw capital from our brokerage subsidiary could be restricted.
Risk Factors Related to our Common Stock
Our ability to have our securities traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market is subject to us meeting applicable listing criteria.
We are currently listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, a national securities exchange. Nasdaq requires companies desiring to list their common stock to meet certain listing criteria including total number of shareholders: minimum stock price, total value of public float, and in some cases total shareholders’ equity and market capitalization. Our failure to meet such applicable listing criteria could prevent us from continuing to list our common stock on Nasdaq. In the event we are unable to have our shares traded on Nasdaq, our common stock could potentially trade on the OTCQX or the OTCQB, each of which is generally considered less liquid and more volatile than Nasdaq. Our failure to have our shares traded on the Nasdaq could make it more difficult for you to trade our shares, could prevent our common stock trading on a frequent and liquid basis and could result in the value of our common stock being less than it would be if we were able to list our shares on Nasdaq.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with Nasdaq’s continued listing standards, a failure of which could result in a delisting of our common stock and warrants .
Nasdaq requires that the trading price of a company’s listed stock on Nasdaq remain above one dollar in order for such stock to remain listed. If a listed stock trades below one dollar for more than 30 consecutive trading days, then it is subject to delisting from Nasdaq. In addition, to maintain a listing on Nasdaq, we must satisfy minimum financial and other continued listing requirements and standards, including those regarding director independence and independent committee requirements, minimum stockholders’ equity, and certain corporate governance requirements. If we are unable to satisfy these requirements or standards, we could be subject to delisting, which would have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and warrants and would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we would expect to take actions to restore our compliance with the listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our common stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common stock, prevent our common stock from dropping below the minimum bid price requirement, or prevent future non-compliance with the listing requirements.
As previously disclosed on a Current Report on Form 8-K filed by us, Nasdaq had previously notified us on September 1, 2023 that we were not in compliance with the Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) the “Bid Price Rule”) because it failed to maintain a minimum bid price of $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. Further as of July 22, 2024, Nasdaq determined that that our securities had a closing bid price of $0.10 or less for ten consecutive trading days and as a result, Nasdaq delivered written notice to the Company on July 23, 2024 under which it advised us that Nasdaq has determined to delist our securities from The Nasdaq Capital Market. We requested a hearing to appeal Nasdaq’s delisting determination. On August 19, 2024, we received a notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC (“Nasdaq”), dated August 19, 2024, informing us that we had regained compliance with the “Bid Price Rule for continued listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market, as the bid price of our common stock closed at or above $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days since August 2, 2024. As a result of our demonstrated compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, such aforementioned hearing was cancelled.
Although our common stock is currently listed on Nasdaq, we may not be able to continue to meet the exchange’s minimum listing requirements or those of any other national exchange. The Listing Rules of Nasdaq require listing issuers to comply with certain standards in order to remain listed on its exchange. If, for any reason, we should fail to maintain compliance with these listing standards and Nasdaq should delist our securities from trading on its exchange and we are unable to obtain listing on another national securities exchange, a reduction in some or all of the following may occur, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our shareholders:
the liquidity of our common stock;
the market price of our common stock;
our ability to obtain financing for the continuation of our operations;
the number of institutional and general investors that will consider investing in our common stock;
the number of investors in general that will consider investing in our common stock;
the number of market makers in our common stock;
the availability of information concerning the trading prices and volume of our common stock; and
the number of broker-dealers willing to execute trades in shares of our common stock.
We do not expect to pay dividends and investors should not buy our common stock expecting to receive dividends.
We have not paid any dividends on our common stock in the past, and do not anticipate that we will declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Consequently, you will only realize an economic gain on your investment in our common stock if the price appreciates. You should not purchase our common stock expecting to receive cash dividends. Since we do not pay dividends, then you may have a limited ability to liquidate or receive any payment on your investment. Therefore, our failure to pay dividends may cause you to not see any return on your investment even if we are successful in our business operations. In addition, because we do not pay dividends we may have trouble raising additional funds, which could affect our ability to expand our business operations.
We may conduct future offerings of our common stock and pay debt obligations with our common stock which may diminish our investors’ pro rata ownership and depress our stock price.
We reserve the right to make future offers and sales, either public or private, of our securities, including shares of our common stock or securities convertible into common stock at prices differing from the price of the common stock previously issued. In the event that any such future sales of securities are affected or we use our common stock to pay principal or interest on our debt obligations, an investor’s pro rata ownership interest may be reduced to the extent of any such future sales.
The market price of our common stock is highly volatile and could be subject to volatility related or unrelated to our operations.
You should consider an investment in our securities to be risky, and you should invest in our securities only if you can withstand a significant loss and wide fluctuations in the market value of your investment. Some factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate, in addition to the other risks mentioned in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this prospectus, are:
actual or anticipated fluctuations in quarterly funding portal revenues or operating results, whether in our operations or in those of our competitors;
changes in financial estimates or opinions by research analysts, either with respect to us or other fintech companies;
our failure to accelerate user growth or new issuer growth;
any failure to meet investor or analyst expectations;
the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;
actual or anticipated changes in domestic or worldwide economic, political or market conditions, such as recessions;
changes in the consumer spending environment;
terrorist acts;
changes in laws or regulations, or new interpretations or applications of laws and regulations, that are applicable to our business;
changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles;
short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions in the shares of our common stock;
future sales or issuances of our common stock, including sales or issuances by us, our directors or executive officers and our significant stockholders;
our dividend policy;
changes in the market valuations of other fintech companies;
actions by stockholders;
various market factors or perceived market factors, including rumors, involving us, our vendors and clients, whether accurate or not;
announcements by us or our competitors of new locations, technological advances, significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, divestitures, joint ventures or other strategic initiatives; and
a loss of a key member of management.
The stock markets in general have experienced substantial volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of individual companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock in any market that develops for it. In addition, our stock price may be influenced by trading activity in our common stock as a result of market commentary (including commentary that may be unreliable or incomplete in some cases); changes in expectations about our business, our creditworthiness or investor confidence generally; or actions by stockholders and others seeking to influence our business strategies.
In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, stockholders have instituted class action securities litigation against those companies. Such litigation, if instituted, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management attention and resources, which would significantly harm our profitability and reputation.
FINRA sales practice requirements may limit a stockholder’s ability to buy and sell our securities.
FINRA has adopted rules that require that in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative, low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. The FINRA requirements may make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our common stock or our warrants, which may have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity in our securities. As a result, fewer broker-dealers may be willing to make a market in our common stock or our warrants, reducing a stockholder’s ability to resell shares of our common stock and warrants.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities adversely, the price of our common stock or warrants and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock may be influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our securities adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our common stock or warrants would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us was to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the price of our common stock or warrants or trading volume to decline.
Our issuance of common stock upon the exercise of options granted under our 2021 Equity Incentive Plan and our 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan may dilute all other stockholders.
As of April 30, 2025 we have issued options to purchase 28,594 shares of common stock under our 2021 Equity Incentive Plan (“2023 Plan) and our 2023 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. In June 2025, we amended our 2023 Plan to increase the shares available under such 2023 Plan to 1,547,556 shares. Following amendment of the 2023 Plan, we granted options to officers, directors, employees and consultants to purchase 1,103,722 shares of common stock, which options are not exercisable until approval of the amendment to the 2023 Plan is approved by shareholders. We intend to issue the shares available under the 2023 Plan, as amended, to officers, directors and consultants.. Any such issuances of common stock underlying stock options may cause stockholders to experience dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our common stock to decline. As options are forfeited, we plan to reissue options to other officers, directors, employees and consultants.
Our compliance with complicated U.S. regulations concerning corporate governance and public disclosure is expensive and diverts management’s attention from our core business, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
As a publicly reporting company, we are faced with expensive, complicated and evolving disclosure, governance and compliance laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, and Nasdaq rules. As a result of the complexity involved in complying with the applicable rules and regulations, our management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. We may need to hire more personnel in the future or engage outside consultants, which will increase our operating expenses, to assist us in complying with these requirements.
In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest substantial resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from business operations to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be harmed.
Failure to maintain effective internal control over our financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could cause our financial reports to be inaccurate.
We are required pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to assess and report on the effectiveness of those controls. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. Although we prepare our financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, our internal accounting controls may not meet all standards applicable to companies with publicly traded securities. If we fail to implement any required improvements to our disclosure controls and procedures, we may be obligated to report control deficiencies in which case, we could become subject to regulatory sanction or investigation. Further, these outcomes could damage investor confidence in the accuracy and reliability of our financial statements.
Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.
Our articles of incorporation and bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Utah law.
In addition, as permitted by the Utah Business Corporation Act, our bylaws and the indemnification agreements that we have entered into with our directors and officers provide that:
we will indemnify our directors and officers for serving us in those capacities or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Utah law. Utah law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful;
we may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law;
we are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification;
we will not be obligated pursuant to our bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors, or Board, or brought to enforce a right to indemnification;
the rights conferred in our bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons; and
we may not retroactively amend our bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees and agents.
Limitations on liability and indemnification matters.
As permitted by the corporate laws of the state of Utah, our articles of incorporation include a provision to eliminate the personal liability of our directors for monetary damages for breach or alleged breach of their fiduciary duties as directors, subject to certain exceptions. In addition, our bylaws provide that we are required to indemnify our officers and directors under certain circumstances, including those circumstances in which indemnification would otherwise be discretionary, and we will be required to advance expenses to our officers and directors as incurred in connection with proceedings against them for which they may be indemnified. If we are required to indemnify, both for the costs of their defense in any action or to pay monetary damages upon a finding of a court or in any settlement, our business and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
